Testimony Before the Council of the District of Columbia COW Hearing on School Safety, “School Safety Enhancement Amendment Act of 2023” & “Conflict Resolution Education Amendment Act of 2023”
By Rachel Johnston, Chief of Staff, DC Charter School Alliance
January 11, 2024
Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Rachel Johnston, and I’m a Ward 5 resident and the Chief of Staff of the DC Charter School Alliance, the local non-profit that advocates on behalf of public charter schools to ensure that every student can choose high-quality public schools that prepare them for lifelong success.
We’re facing a crossroads in our city. According to data from the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime increased 40 percent in 2023 from the previous year, including a 35 percent increase in homicides and a 67 percent increase in robberies (1). In fact, while homicide rates are decreasing in nearly every major city across the country, they continue to rise year over year in DC, making the District an outlier (2). We know violent incidents too often involve young people and often occur in the neighborhoods surrounding our schools and on the routes to and from schools – which, as we know, can be a barrier to school attendance. This makes safety a precursor to learning. When dangerous incidents occur in their neighborhoods, or they feel unsafe in their commutes, students are less likely to attend.
Safety is, therefore, a big priority for every school leader in the District, regardless of sector. So I want to start by thanking Chairman Mendelson, Councilmember Parker, and the entire Council for elevating safety as a critical issue through these two bills and working toward solutions that enable students to actively engage in school. Two important steps to improving safety are equipping schools with the appropriate resources and partners across the city and ensuring students have tools to manage conflict.
As you consider the details of the School Safety Enhancement Amendment Act of 2023 and the Conflict Resolution Education Amendment Act of 2023, we have a few recommendations we believe will strengthen the efforts to address safety concerns in the city.
Effective Solutions Schools Are Implementing
Many schools are focusing resources on building more joy into academic lessons while offering highly engaging extracurricular and career-focused activities that are appealing. For example, Sojourner Truth’s Montessori model gives students the opportunity to develop their own learning plan that includes real-world projects on topics that interest them. Howard University Middle School for Mathematics and Science installed a CTE lab with e-sports gaming consoles, which is both exciting for students and builds valuable skills. A few elementary schools like Bridges PCS and Center City Congress Heights focus on making Fridays fun to improve attendance. Bridges PCS offers a variety of clubs on Friday afternoons, while Center City Congress Heights developed a class-vs-class game challenge. Several high schools have also partnered with OSSE’s Advanced Technical Center (ATC) to take career-focused classes. We thank Dr. Grant and the OSSE team for creating an accessible way for students to build skills in areas of interest. Students who took classes at the ATC had higher in-seat attendance rates than their peers.
Schools are also invested in building and rebuilding close and caring relationships that were lost during the pandemic but are critically important for keeping students engaged. For example, Goodwill Excel hired additional success coaches to decrease the number of students assigned to each coach, so coaches could build deeper relationships and better identify and address barriers to attendance. Similarly, several schools invested more in family engagement staff to increase the number of home visits and touch points with families.
While these strategies are helping, to tackle this crisis, we need increased investment in citywide initiatives that increase accessibility to safe transportation, ensure schools are properly resourced, and place a renewed emphasis on the importance of strong attendance. Below I share a few recommendations for ways to do this.
Recommendations for Bill 25-234, “School Safety Enhancement Amendment Act of 2023”
We appreciate that the Council approved the creation of a school safety committee to explore initiatives and resources that will improve student safety. We’ve also been very pleased by the ongoing collaboration with the Deputy Mayor of Education and the DC Public Charter School Board to elevate the voices of charter leaders throughout this process. As we move forward with next steps, first, it’s important to ensure schools are adequately staffed, but we must also ensure we leave enough flexibility for each school to staff the positions aligned with its needs and staffing model. For example, a small elementary school's needs may differ from that of a large high school.
Second, in light of ongoing serious safety concerns in neighborhoods and communities across the District and concerns school leaders have shared with us, we believe there is an important opportunity to:
Expand access to crucial preventative interventions like Safe Passage and violence interrupters. Within the eight designated safe passage zones, 21 charter schools don’t receive safe passage support. Every school inside those zones should receive support. We also have schools that are not in a priority zone, but their school communities have requested assistance because they have experienced significant levels of violence. Right now, only 13% of all charter schools have access to safe passage resources. Similarly, in a recent survey we did with our schools, more than 80% of respondents noted not having access to or utilizing violence interrupters, another key prevention resource. But, where support was available, a large majority of school leaders reported this tool to be effective. That’s why we urge the city to provide equitable access to both Safe Passage and violence interrupter resources.
Increase and enforce penalties for crimes committed near schools. While safety inside schools will always be a priority for school leaders, they are primarily concerned for their students’ safety near campus and on their routes to and from school. Open-air drug markets exist down the street from schools. Students are robbed commuting to and from school and are increasingly victims of fatal gun violence.
Create better information-sharing practices and tools between schools and government agencies, including the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Increased collaboration that focuses on sharing only data necessary to support students and families will improve safety by targeting existing resources more effectively.
Improve crisis response from government agencies like MPD, CFSA and DBH/ChAMPS when a serious incident occurs in a school zone by establishing clear protocols for short- and longer-term crisis response. We’ve heard from our schools that when a serious safety incident occurs, they do not have ongoing consistent advice and support. Yesterday, many DC schools received an emailed bomb threat and while we are glad MPD determined that it was not substantiated, schools received a variety of responses from emergency agencies as they were trying to navigate a very challenging situation.
Recommendations for Bill 25-420, “Conflict Resolution Education Amendment Act of 2023”
Finally, I’ll briefly touch on the Conflict Resolution Education Amendment Act of 2023. Our schools currently teach conflict resolution in a variety of ways including during class time, in advisory groups, and through after-school programming. That’s why we thank Dr. Christina Grant and her team at OSSE for investing time to develop the newly released draft SEL standards that thoroughly incorporate holistic conflict resolution skills throughout. Therefore, we don’t think new legislation is necessary in light of these new draft standards.
Our schools appreciate OSSE’s support in developing model policies, guidance, and other resources they can opt to use to implement standards, and we look forward to working closely with our leaders and OSSE on this as we move forward. We also believe these new draft standards present great opportunities to partner with external organizations, including nonprofits, other city agencies, and safe passage and violence interrupters to help students build strong conflict resolution skills.
Moving Forward
Safety issues negatively affect student attendance and when students can attend, safety-related trauma creates a barrier to engaging in school. So, ensuring students are safe inside and outside the school building is a top priority for us and for our schools. But this is truly an issue that requires a citywide solution. As always, we’re grateful for our partnership with the city, and we welcome any opportunity to continue collaborating to ensure our students can actively and safely engage in learning.
Thank you for your time and attention, and I welcome your questions.
Citations
District Crime Data at a Glance. Metropolitan Police Department. https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/district-crime-data-glance.
Homicides Are Falling In Other Major Cities. Why Are They So High In D.C.? DCist. December 29, 2023. https://dcist.com/story/23/12/29/dc-homicides-2023-highest-since-1997/.
